Knock Your Socks Off Whole Grain Pizza Made with Greens and Sami's Bakery Millet & Flax Crust

 

Knock Your Socks Off Pizza with Greens and Sami's Bakery Millet & Flax Pizza Crust

 

Click here to get the web version of this post if you received this via email--lots of photos.

The Sunday before last, the Esselstyns came for dinner--and they brought along a big red Engine 2 shopping bag filled with some of their favorite plant-based foods for me to try out.  The perfect dinner guests--they come bearing food and hearty appetites!

1.  Sami's Bakery Hand Made & Brick Oven Baked Millet & Flax Pizza Crust - Ann said I would love this crust.  And she was right.  The texture & taste are out-of-this-world!  Order direct from the bakery in Tampa, FL on Tues., Weds., or Thurs., for 2 day Fed Ex delivery.  $4.09 a crust, minimum order of $25.00, + shipping.  They tell me they'll keep in the fridge for 10 days, in the freezer for 1 month--no preservatives.  Find someone to split an order with.

2.  Walnut Acres Organic No-fat No-Sodium Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce - Ann's favorite pasta sauce, but I'm clueless where to find this.  It's one of the best I've tasted--thick & flavorful, without the salt.

3.  Pomi Chopped Tomatoes in a BPA-free tetra box--100% fresh Italian Tomatoes, no sodium--available in regular grocery stores & at Whole Foods.

4.  Luna Burgers - 1/4 pound veggie burgers made with spelt, black beans, oats, onion, carrots, kale, and more all real food ingredients. Not a speck of soy.  The Esselstyns brought us the Garden Thyme & Farmhouse Chili burgers, but Luna has other interesting varieties, like Peanut Cilantro, BBQ-Gluten Free, Kick Start-Herbed Veggie Breakfast Patties, and the Classic.  These were good--not OMG! amazing--but they're quick, hearty, no-soy healthy, & with no added oils.  170 calories, 2 grams of fat, 6 grams of fiber, 8 grams of protein.  I've only tried the Farmhouse Chili variety, so I'm willing to try the others. 

Add Greens to Your Pizza Sauce! 

Here's Ann Esselstyn's brilliant pizza-making tip--add greens to the sauce.  In principle I like the  idea of adding healthy greens to the pizza sauce--or any pasta sauce, for that matter--but I had to try it myself to be convinced.  Would it ruin the taste?  Not at all, it turns out.  Full Disclosure:  I used Lacinato kale, which is mild tasting.

1. Strip the stems from a bunch of kale, Swiss chard, or spinach.  You'll want about 4 cups of stem-less raw greens.  Chop up the greens into bite-sized pieces,  and saute them with a smidge of water for about 4-5 minutes until tender.  No liquid should remain--drain it out if there is any. 

2. Add about 1 cup of the Walnut Acres Organic Pasta sauce (be careful--you don't want an overly sauced soggy pizza) and warm it up for a minute with the greens.

3. Spread it on the crust--top with plenty of your favorite toppings. 

4.  Ann bakes hers at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  I bake mine at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Suit yourself.

My Halloween Night Supper of Sami's Knock-Your-Socks-Off Pizza

This pizza was so crazy good that I figured it had to be made with white flour--just like the Seinfeld episode where everyone loves the fat-free frozen yogurt that's really full of butter fat.  Sami's is the real whole grain deal.  It's made with organic millet flour, brown rice flour, and ground flax seeds.  No yeast, no wheat, no gluten.  But, be aware it's not made on exclusive gluten-free equipment.

Nutritional Info:  (Note: the protein & fiber grams are different on their website, from what the packaging says.  I called them and they told me the package labeling is the correct one.) 

 

Nutrition Facts Sami's Bakery Millet and flax pizza crust Serving Size:         1 slice (56g) Amount Per Serving Calories 136 Total Fat 0g       Saturated Fat 0g       Trans Fat 0g Cholesterol 0mg Sodium 90mg Carbohydrate 30g       Dietary Fiber 4g       Sugars 0g Protein 4g

What's Up with Millet?

I didn't know a thing about millet before I got hooked on Sami's pizza crust.  But, bottom line,  millet is good stuff.  It's high in magnesium, tryptophan, manganese, phosphorus, and niacin.  And it's been shown to lower the risk of type-2 diabetes--promote the repair of body tissues because of its high phosphorus content--and benefit the cardiovascular system because of its high niacin & magnesium content.  Read more here, on the World's Healthiest Foods website.  Thanks, MG for your recommendation to this website.

Before I'd tasted Sami's pizza--I was all about Kabuli Whole Wheat Pizza Crusts--but bottom line--although whole wheat flour is its #1 ingredient, its #2 ingredient is plain old white flour.

 

Ready for sauce and toppings

 

Four cups of spine-stripped Lacinato kale ready for the saute pan

Disappears into about 1 cup's worth of kale

Time to add the Walnut Acres Pasta Sauce--no salt, but thick & loaded with flavor

One minute to warm up the sauce & greens

Pizza sauce mixed with greens--not too saucey--just right

Ready for the Oven--topped with jarred Kalamata olives, canned water-packed artichoke hearts, jarred roasted red peppers, sun-dried smoked tomatoes, and 1/2 of a crumbled Field Roast Grain Meat "Italian Sausage" link--no need for browning or precooking--but, full-disclosure--1/2 Field Roast has 5 grams of fat from expeller-pressed safflower oil.

Hubby helping to prepare dinner for the Esselstyns & Friends

Dr. Esselstyn & Barbara Carefully Listening to Something My Husband is Saying

Ann Spreading Home-made Indian Spinach Palak & Tamarind Chutney on Oven-Crisped Lavash

 

Funny Story:  My Husband's Doctor's Appointment

This morning hubby had a routine doctor's appointment.  He asked his doc if he could run a B-12 test since he's been eating a mostly vegan diet.  No problem.  His doc said keep doing whatever you're doing, but watch your intake of added oils. 

His doc says, "There's a doctor named Esselstyn who recommends eating a plant-based diet without added oils to prevent heart disease.  You might want to look into this."

My husband, "Oh yes, I am familiar with Dr. Esselstyn's diet--in fact, we just had him and his wife over for dinner last weekend."

True story.  And my husband adds, "I always knew Dr. F. was an excellent physician."

 

 

Comments

[Katie]

Another super informative post! I love pizza (and kale) so I especially liked this one. How fun that you could have the Esselstyns over for dinner!

[Barbara]

Whoa. Now they're your personal friends? I am so jealous. Bad enough you just posted a picture of your beautiful 25-year-old self with those two handsome young studs; now you're having dinner with my heros.

But really, congratulations. These pictures look so good and I bet a great time was had by all.

(Your doctor knows about Esselstyn and recommends no oil? Amazing. The majority of doctors I go to wonder where I get my protein.)

Barbara

[William Kruidenier]

Cool post, Debby. Did the E's eat the pizza with the Field Roast sausage (w/ saff oil) included?

[JenniferItoND]

I agree the world's healthiest foods website is very fun and a terrific resource. If you have not done it yet try the "Foods Advisor" quiz on the site. Take it with a grain of salt as all these sorts of things but it's easy and fun. You plug in age, gender, and answer to foods frequency quiz and then you get results in order of % likelihood of what nutrients you might be deficient in, then foods high in those nutrients in order of number of those nutrients, then recipes with those foods in order of number of indicated foods. Each result is a link so you can click on a nutrient, this is the really fun part. For example I was likely deficient in Riboflavin (B2) so I could click on that and see foods highest in B2, functions in the body, symptoms of deficiency etc.
I am a Naturopathic Physician (involves 4 years of naturopathic medical school which is extremely heavy in nutrition) and a lifelong foodie and I learned quite a bit.

[sugar pie]

Not to be a spoilsport, but you (and the Esselstyns) might be interested to know that the ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 in millet is about 17 to 1! I think that probably outweighs any benefits gained from the product being oil free... Wild rice, on the other hand, looks pretty awesome with a ratio of about 0.8!!!